Love, Janis Laura Joplin
Love, Janis
Laura Joplin
Oh, lord won’t you buy me a good biography! Oh, how I wanted to read this book. But it just didn’t grab me and I struggled through the first chapter. I was tempted to just put it down. No matter the genre of the book that is always a bad start.
Initially, I didn’t get what Laura Joplin was after. When I eventually saw what Laura Joplin was doing it still didn’t strike me as anything that any well-researched biography could not have written. That is really a shame.
The upside is that it’s a quick read, and shouldn’t take more than a weekend. I had never read anything about the immortal Janis Joplin so I was hoping this would be the Janis book I didn’t know I needed. Was it? Well, no not quite.
What it did do was whet my appetite for more Janis which is a good thing. So I’ll have to look for a more definitive biography.
I did learn a few things about Janis that I didn’t know before; which wasn’t hard since I knew almost nothing of Ms. Joplin outside her music.
I would have liked a deeper look into her tenure with Big Brother. More as to why she split with them. I wanted more on the making of the Kozmic Blues and Full Tilt Boogie bands. I wanted another biography.
Also, and yes I know this isn’t art class but this softcover copy edition looks horrendous. The entire thing looks like it was thrown together by some lonely intern with ms paint who, working by candlelight and with fear as his motivation, Googled the term hippie font. The publisher didn’t even try.
There is a lot to love about Janis Joplin. She was the greatest female singer in rock history. She was involved in the creation of some great music. She was a proponent of Jack Daniels. She seems to have been a real swell person.
There is so much that could have been told. The letters just didn’t add much to the conversation. There just didn’t seem to be any big revelations. We weren't privy to any kind of info that you might have been able to glean elsewhere.
Now, I understand the personal vibe that the letters give the story but I feel these were highly curated to preserve Janis’ image.
I also think that if this book was more stridently edited it could have made a great foundation for a bigger and better treatment of Janis’ life and music. But it would have to be written by someone else. Mayber I want another biography.
The writing isn’t all that it could be. It’s not that the book is poorly written, it’s just not as good as it really should be.
If you have never read anything about Janis or her music this is not a good introduction to her music. The big selling point is those letters They are a cute gimmick but, as gimmicks tend to do, it wears thin and fast.
Why else would you read this book? If you like Ms. Joplin’s music this really isn’t going to help you gain a deeper understanding of it.
If, on the other hand, you love and know about her music and the bands she was in then this would be an ok addition to help further understand the person, a little. These letters are so highly curated that Laura Joplin is painting a very specific portrait of Janis.
The question then becomes: is this portrait a masterpiece? Did Laura Joplin write a Warhol? Sadly, no. I’m only a little richer for having read it but not much.
This could be a great read if you paid just a couple of bucks. The more you pay the less you will get back. There are diminishing returns on your investment.
There was so much potential for “Love, Janis”. Having a sister’s insight could have been wonderfully entertaining but for me, it missed the mark.
There is no way I can tell Laura I love her but I still Love Janis Joplin’s music and that’s the most important thing. “Love, Janis” is a perfectly passable passel of papers nothing more.
Love, Janis
Laura Joplin
Oh, lord won’t you buy me a good biography! Oh, how I wanted to read this book. But it just didn’t grab me and I struggled through the first chapter. I was tempted to just put it down. No matter the genre of the book that is always a bad start.
Initially, I didn’t get what Laura Joplin was after. When I eventually saw what Laura Joplin was doing it still didn’t strike me as anything that any well-researched biography could not have written. That is really a shame.
The upside is that it’s a quick read, and shouldn’t take more than a weekend. I had never read anything about the immortal Janis Joplin so I was hoping this would be the Janis book I didn’t know I needed. Was it? Well, no not quite.
What it did do was whet my appetite for more Janis which is a good thing. So I’ll have to look for a more definitive biography.
I did learn a few things about Janis that I didn’t know before; which wasn’t hard since I knew almost nothing of Ms. Joplin outside her music.
I would have liked a deeper look into her tenure with Big Brother. More as to why she split with them. I wanted more on the making of the Kozmic Blues and Full Tilt Boogie bands. I wanted another biography.
Also, and yes I know this isn’t art class but this softcover copy edition looks horrendous. The entire thing looks like it was thrown together by some lonely intern with ms paint who, working by candlelight and with fear as his motivation, Googled the term hippie font. The publisher didn’t even try.
There is a lot to love about Janis Joplin. She was the greatest female singer in rock history. She was involved in the creation of some great music. She was a proponent of Jack Daniels. She seems to have been a real swell person.
There is so much that could have been told. The letters just didn’t add much to the conversation. There just didn’t seem to be any big revelations. We weren't privy to any kind of info that you might have been able to glean elsewhere.
Now, I understand the personal vibe that the letters give the story but I feel these were highly curated to preserve Janis’ image.
I also think that if this book was more stridently edited it could have made a great foundation for a bigger and better treatment of Janis’ life and music. But it would have to be written by someone else. Mayber I want another biography.
The writing isn’t all that it could be. It’s not that the book is poorly written, it’s just not as good as it really should be.
If you have never read anything about Janis or her music this is not a good introduction to her music. The big selling point is those letters They are a cute gimmick but, as gimmicks tend to do, it wears thin and fast.
Why else would you read this book? If you like Ms. Joplin’s music this really isn’t going to help you gain a deeper understanding of it.
If, on the other hand, you love and know about her music and the bands she was in then this would be an ok addition to help further understand the person, a little. These letters are so highly curated that Laura Joplin is painting a very specific portrait of Janis.
The question then becomes: is this portrait a masterpiece? Did Laura Joplin write a Warhol? Sadly, no. I’m only a little richer for having read it but not much.
This could be a great read if you paid just a couple of bucks. The more you pay the less you will get back. There are diminishing returns on your investment.
There was so much potential for “Love, Janis”. Having a sister’s insight could have been wonderfully entertaining but for me, it missed the mark.
There is no way I can tell Laura I love her but I still Love Janis Joplin’s music and that’s the most important thing. “Love, Janis” is a perfectly passable passel of papers nothing more.
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